Souls of the Thousand Sunny
by Drawingdragons24-7
Summary: As soon as his keel was completed, he was aware, not coherently thinking yet, but aware, a mix of brightly colored emotions that danced along his wooden frame in joy. He was being built and he couldn't have been happier. (The untold adventures of the Thousand Sunny)
1. Chapter 1

_Joy. Anxiousness. Excitement ._

He came into existence slowly, but much faster than what was normal for one of his size. What should have taken months took weeks. The benefits, he supposed, of having the world's greatest shipwrights all work on you at once.

 _Happiness. Anticipation. Elation._

As soon as his keel was completed, he was aware, not coherently thinking yet, but aware, a mix of brightly colored emotions that danced along his wooden frame in joy. He was being built and he couldn't have been happier. His soul was a single burning star among a massive group of others that traversed the sea. And as the shipwrights completed him, that star became a sun that began to outshine the others and the mess of emotions that was his consciousness became sentient.

 _Curiosity. Wonder. Enthusiasm_

It was only when his mass head was completed that he gained a form, trading a burning ball of light for limbs, hands, and an actual body. Of course, the term "actual" was used loosely as the shipwrights still could not see nor hear him. It didn't bother him though. That was the melancholy of being a ship's spirit after all. There was nothing he could do about it, so he wouldn't worry about it.

 _Pride. Confidence. Strength._

When he was completed, he felt strong, brave, like nothing in the world could bring him down, his confidence a mirror image of the proud lion he was supposed to represent. Of course he knew that there were going to be challenges, enemies that would make him fall to his knees and struggle to keep moving forward, but he would make it. He had to.

He was the ship of the next pirate king after all. He had a crew to bring to Raftel.

 _Eager. Ecstasy. Delight._

When the shipwrights placed the last details on his physical body, he danced across his deck, bounding around, impatient, eager to finally meet the crew he was destined to sail with. He was strong; he'd prove to the world that he could bring a crew the very end of the Grand Line.

 _Awe. Exhilaration._

And when he finally met the crew he was supposed to carry, he was happy to note that they were just as excited as he was. They set sail soon after and were shot at by marines. A member rejoined. More cannon balls were launched in their direction, but he had no worries. He could tell his crew was strong. They'd protect him while he waited to make his move.

 _Bliss._

They named him and his soul shined brighter.

The name just felt so unexplainably _right_ that he couldn't help but smile brightly from where he sat above the sail. His soul flared and for a moment; he was sure that he was visible. Then they gave him an order. So he did, and they flew.

 _Nice to meet you, Sunny_!

 **Author's Note: I am well aware that there are other stories I should be working on. No, I have not given up on any of them. In fact, I wrote twice as much for those two stories as I did for this one, so those chapters should be out relatively quickly. (NO GUARANTEES BECAUSE I'M SLOW AS FACE) Chapters for this story are shorter in the beginning. I have the next two written out. This chapter was more of a prologue.**

 **Also, this concept seems to be a little bit more confusing. You haven't seen much of it, but I do think that I need a beta reader for this story, just to see if I can get somebody to let me know before I post that it doesn't make sense.**

 **And it's kind of an AU? Plot wise, nothing really changes with the Strawhats. There may be an added adventure or two, but other than that I'll be following the Strawhat's journey to a "T" although I will be telling it from a different point of view. This isn't a retelling though, so I'm not going to go into very many details with the different arcs. This is a side story basically. Just a few tiny details that I took from the canon universe and decided to run away with.**


	2. Wayward Spirits

It hadn't even been two hours since Sunny first set sail that problems began. He wondered for a moment if it was always like this for new ships and their crews. The first hour and a half had been normal enough, but then he felt a prickle of unease at the edge of his consciousness. Eventually that unease turned into a more nasty feeling and he went to investigate. The sense had led him onto the grassy deck, where Chopper was sunbathing peacefully despite the two ominous figures standing next to him. It took Sunny less than a second to realize that those figures were spirits, just like he was, and that Chopper couldn't see them.

" ** _Would you look at that? Some young pirate completely unaware. His ship's new too. Poor bastard won't know what's wrong until it's too late. Such a bright young soul too. We could get much energy from feeding off of him,"_** one of the spirits hissed, its voice carrying a demonic edge. Sunny narrowed his eyes and frowned.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sunny growled. Both spirits turned to him in shock.

 ** _"The ship spirit! How did he know we were here? He shouldn't have developed the sense for it yet_**!" the other spirit commented. Sunny growled.

"You didn't answer the question," he warned. The first spirit waved his friend off.

 ** _"He's young. What's he going to do to us? New ships are pathetic. It's the old one's you want to worry about_** ," the first spirit consoled. He studied Sunny's figure, taking in the golden yellow shirt with a red collar and white accents. He scoffed. **_"Hear that circus boy? We're going to feed off of your crew member and you're not going to be able to do anything about it_**."

"Hell _no_ ," Sunny growled and he launched himself at the two spirits.

He was ganged up on immediately, only barely managing to hold his own against the two demons. He got hit several times and only barely managed to graze the two spirits himself. He growled and swiped at his mouth after the spirits knocked him to the ground. The shipwrights had never mentioned anything about him having to deal with _this_ when they were building him.

 ** _"Isn't this pathetic? A new spirit, straight from Water 7, the ship for a pirate captain who claims to be the next pirate king and he can't even hold his own against a couple of old spirits like ourselves. Aren't ships spirits supposed to resemble the potential of the captain that they serve? Their captain must be really pathetic,"_** one of the spirits cackled to the other. Sunny growled.

"Hey." The demons turned to him as he stood. "Don't make fun of the captain. He _will_ become the pirate king."

The demons laughed. **"** ** _Oh really?"_** one of them sneered. **_"Surely you don't think that you could do something about it?"_**

Sunny growled and then instinct took over. He barely registered the fact that his veins were filling with a radiating kind of warmth and his chest, with some sort of burning energy, before he opened his mouth and roared, the world around him exploding into a brilliant gold. The lion he resembled had materialized and roared with him, sending a ray of light and energy that dissolved the demons into a black mist that disappeared with the ray.

Sunny closed his mouth, the lion dissolving once it was over and blinked. Whatever it was that he had done, it was powerful, because the demons had been completely destroyed. But it appeared to only have worked against the spirits, for his deck and the waters around his hull were completely calm and Chopper was still sunbathing, oblivious. He stared down at his hands in shock, slightly unnerved at the flames that still licked at the edges of his clothes. They disappeared soon after, but not without leaving a distinct trace of awe and wonder in Sunny's soul.

"Shishishishishi," Luffy's distinct laugh pierced through Sunny's thoughts and the lion like spirit turned to glance at his captain. "Sunny just roared." Sunny nearly fell over in shock from where he was standing. Could Luffy _hear_ him?

Zoro raised an eyebrow even as Usopp gave the strawhatted teen a weird look.

"Uh, Luffy? I didn't hear anything. Ships don't roar," Usopp said. Sunny merely approached his captain to try and see if maybe now the devil fruit user could see him.

"But Sunny just did!" Luffy almost whined. Zoro just grunted and closed his eyes.

"I just said that I didn't hear anything! It must have been something from your imagination, Luffy," Usopp reasoned. Luffy shook his head.

"Nuh uh. I heard him."

"Him? Aren't ships normally girls?" Zoro asked, only bothering to open a single eye. The swordsman didn't question the fact that Luffy could hear the ship at all.

"I don't know, but Sunny's a guy!"

"And how do you know this?" Usopp questioned.

"I just know it. Just like I know that I heard Sunny roar!" Luffy walked forward to get a better view of the pirate flag hanging proudly from the _Thousand Sunny's_ mast, passing through Sunny on his way. Said spirit sighed. Luffy still wasn't able to see him. "I can't see Sunny and I can't hear him most of the time either, but I heard him just now and I know that he's here with us."

Luffy then got distracted with the sight of Sanji and ran off, shouting for meat. A month ago, Usopp would have made some comment about them being _on_ the _Thousand Sunny_ and that the ship was _obviously_ with them, but after the _Going Merry_ . . . Usopp looked up at the crew's mark and smiled.

He knew what Luffy meant.


End file.
